(Review) The Compleat Strategist, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

We had yet another basketball tournament for the girls this weekend.  The games were stretched across the Philadelphia suburbs, sometimes an hour drive between sites!  There will be an AAU post/rant later, but I am grateful that my youngest daughter's series of games started and finished an hour early, which gave us a few minutes to take a detour and finally visit The Compleat Strategist in King of Prussia (KOP).

Directly off their Facebook page

Call it bad memory, call it a case of the Mandela Effect, but I swear I visited the Strategist in the King of Prussia Mall in the early 90s.  My high school friend Charles went to Ursinus College and we came down for the weekend.  We toured the campus, hung out, played some Talislanta with his friend Vince, and went to KOP with the specific task of visiting the Strategist in the mall.  

Now, bringing this story up with the person at The Compleat Strategist this past weekend, I got a very confused and kind of abrupt, "We've never been at the mall. You couldn't afford the rent."  While the modern day costs are beyond ludicrous, our trip was prior to the ritzy upgrade of the mall, adding Neiman Marcus and similar stores.  With a few days to think about it, I'm trying to rationalize this gigantic space chock full of RPGs, miniatures, and board games within a three-story mall and while my shady memories might be confused with a B. Dalton, the product lines were so diverse that I doubt many of the companies made it to mainstream distribution.  

My possible delusional nostalgic rantings aside, the only true problem I had with my visit was an utter lack of time .  It's a small storefront, but it is wall to wall games.  The old comicc and game store I used to work at in the 90's claimed "an immense and diverse selection," and they had most stores gaming sections beat, but even they would have to bow down to every nook and cranny filled with rows of RPGs, stacks of boardgame, bins of wargames, and racks of Reaper and D&D minis  The short time I had was barely enough for a quick perusal, so I barely glanced at the minis, avoided the enviable collection of wargames, and for my own sanity, stepped past the best retail collection of Ospreys that I've seen in 15 years or so.  

This is a destination for shopping, not gaming.  There was a single table out, but the staff member was using their laptop on it.  Which brings up the the important customer service moment I witnessed.  Two guys ahead of me inquired about Free League's Alien RPG.  Not only did a quick search of the laptop find it, but it also marked the aisle and shelf where it should have been located.  I don't see that often nowadays, and unfortunately it's because most places can put their RPG book inventory in a paper shopping bag.  

My quick 15 minute visit with my daughter netted us a copy of the Modiphus 2d20 John Carter of Mars RPG for me, and a family card game for Millie, put it also cemented a minimum of a 4 out of 5 gnomes on the Gaming with the Gnomies review system.  

More tournaments in Philly are on the schedule, hopefully, it will grant me enough time to visit again.

The Compleat Strategist is located on 580 Shoemaker Rd, King of Prussia PA 19406  Open Monday-Thursday 11-7, Friday and Saturday 11-8, and Sunday 12-5.